Libya

Libya is a country located in the North Africa region of Africa, with a capital of Tripoli. The country is located along the Mediterranean Sea, with major cities like Tripoli, Misrata, Sirte, Ajdabiya, Tobruk, and Benghazi being located along the coast. Libya was once ruled by Carthage, but it would be conquered by the Roman Republic/Roman Empire, the Vandals, the Byzantine Empire, and then the Arabs, who introduced Islam to the region. Today, Libya is a mixture of Arab and Berber culture, with the religion of Islam being a uniting factor of the population. In 1951, Libya became an independent kingdom after the end of Italy's rule during World War II, but Idris I of Libya was overthrown in a 1969 military coup led by Muammar Gaddafi, an Arab nationalist who established the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Gaddafi ruled the country for decades, imprisoning opponents, oppressing the people of the country, supporting terrorism, and serving as a puppet of the Soviet Union (until the Cold War's end in 1991), but in 2011 he was overthrown during the Arab Spring-inspired First Libyan Civil War. The downfall of Gaddafi led to the National Transitional Council taking power, and Libya became a democracy. Unfortunately, Libya was plagued by violence between supporters of the new government, Islamist insurgents (including both the New General National Congress and the Islamic State), Gaddafi loyalists, and the Libyan Army. For much of the 2010s, Libya was divided between an Islamist government in Benghazi, the secularist army-controlled government in Tobruk, and the Islamic State in Sirte and some coastal areas. In 2015, Libya had a population of 6,411,776 people, with 97% being Muslim, .7% Christian, .3% Buddhist, and 2% other religions.